Energy Service Partners

Joanne Frances Teping - California

This is what happened to us in March 2021.

Door to door Salesman Shameer Jalil came to our home Mar 2021. The limited time solar offer he was selling sounded great. We told him to come back later.
My brother Joe told me, the Salesman came back a second time when I wasn’t home and had Joe go over a “project agreement” on Shameer’s tablet. Joe told him he was not feeling well and to come back later when his sister was there. Shameer said,” don’t worry, I will help you fill it out so you will be on your way to saving money.” Joe's name was spelled wrong all the way through the agreement.
Shameer did not provide options as to financing and contractors He was in a hurry with this great deal with no money down, $9,500 tax rebate and payments of only $80 a month, And PGE bills less than $15 a month.
Joe has episodes of Hepatic Enthepoloposy…mind fog due to cirrhosis, showing diminished capacity Joe's memory is foggy as to how this agreement has his name on it.

According to time stamp on page 51, the 51-page Agreement was read, understood, and signed electronically on Shameer’s tablet in 7 minutes.
Shameer disappeared a month after the agreement. His phone was disconnected after being paid $7200 for selling the panels. He vanished before the solar was even installed. No one could tell us where he was. Documents me contacting ESP on their website not being able to reach salesmen or anyone in authority at ESP.
Joe was uncomfortable about the “agreement” from the start as my messages to ESP show.
For months the only ”people” at ESP we were able to talk to were the the BOTs, who answered the online requests. They recited the same type of script …showing concern, seeming apologetic, and promising to have an upper division supervisor take care of our problems. Didn’t happen. Customer service was nonexistent.
No one ever showed us how to monitor the system
We never received the $9,500 tax rebate that the salesman promised.
The loan Payments were $120 a month for 15 panels. Not $80 a month for 18 panels as the salesman said. Now we are finding out our solar payments will be $160 a month soon. The financing company is Sunlight Financial aka Cross River Bank We now have a lien on our home for $31,000 and a $15,000 finance charge we were not told about. In addition to having two monthly power charges. Solar and our regular monthly PGE
Solar power decreased and became nearly nonexistent from Oct 2021- to July 2022
We Left over 70 requests on the ESP website between July 2021-July 2022.
We finally were able to talk to a supervisor, Scott S. in Jan. 2022. He first spoke in technical terms we did not understand. We are seniors who know very little about solar. Then he told us our system is working as expected per the contract. I told him not as we expected. Your salesman told us that our PGE bills would not be more than $15 a month. The system is not working. He then told us, “Your salesman is Not an employee of ESP. He is an independent contractor. ESP can not be held responsible for anything he tells you.”
After waiting 6 months to talk to someone knowledgable about our own system. Supervisor Scott S. came off as rude, arrogant, and self-serving. We got the feeling we were “bothering him” inquiring about our $31,000 system that was not producing power.
At this point, the only two “humans” we experienced at ESP were a sneaky, deceptive, conman salesman, and a rude, arrogant supervisor.
We discovered that Shameer Jalil is NOT and has never been a registered Solar salesman with ESP. The California State Contractors License Board states Solar salespeople need to be registered in order to execute a legal contract. This is one of the scams ESP uses to get away with fraud.
Esp SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT IS ILLEGAL TO HAVE AN UNREGISTERED SALESMAN EXECUTE A SALE FOR THEM, and not allow the agreement to go through. This was unknown to us at the time. This is the basis of all our problems with ESP. We can easily see why solar salespeople need to be Registered with the California state license board and the Contractor they sell for.
My brother, Joe found out he has bile Duct cancer in March 2022. So we put our solar problems on the back burner.
Joe had 3 rounds of radiation in July 2022 at UCSF
When we came home in July. I checked the PGE bill…it was $145 for that month. Higher than it has ever been in June. And we were gone for 12 days.
ESP Never sent a repairman to check the system out until July 2022 After we made formal complaints in July 2022 to Contractors State License Board, Attorney General, FTC, BBB, Center for Accountability, & Calif. Solar and Storage Association.
We were finally able to talk to a “human” at ESP in July 2022 when Brad Comyns, Escalation Manager called and talked to my brother and me. He was very nice and understanding. He told us he talked to the owner and they agreed to cancel our contract and take the panels off. My brother and I were thrilled beyond words. He said he would call back in a couple of days to keep us updated on the process.
Brad called back and told us that he had a meeting with ESP team of lawyers and our contract is legal and binding. Our hearts sank. It was devastating. He said he would have a repairman come out and fix the system, offer lifetime monitoring, have someone show us how to monitor, and help pay our solar and PGE costs for the last year. Not good enough.
The repairman was sent twice. The first time, he said there were no problems with the system. The second time a few weeks later, ESP sent him out to install a new $2000 inverter that has helped the system work much better. It took over a year and a lot of work on my part to even make that happen.
Blame is shifted continuously thru the various “partners”, with NO ONE taking responsibility or being held accountable. Partners include Energy Service Partners, Shameer Jalil, Voltio, Sunlight Financial, Cross River Bank, Gary Geitz, et al.
We are scheduled for Mediation with the Contractors State License Board on Wed. Sep. 7, 2022.
I recently checked out ESP’s online ad. They are recruiting salespeople with promises of earning a lot of money. On their ad it says, “How fast can you make your first five sales?” They pride themselves on customer service. Includes the customer having a Project Manager, an Account Specialist, Communication Team, Investment Grade Documentation, and Pearl Certified Home. We never received any of these. We don’t even know what a Pearl Cerfified Home is. This is what they advertise in their online ads. Is this even legal

Bruce - California

First off, don’t trust ESP, especially once they install the system. They use substandard components and won’t stand behind them once they fail. And they will fail. Second, don’t expect good customer service. They’re rude and you’ll be lucky if they respond to your concerns. When, and if, they do respond, they’ll sidestep any responsibility. In other words, after the install , you’re in your own. Third, if you do choose to use them, caveat emptor. During installation, the installer caused a voltage surge into my home causing over $2000 in damage. Even though the surge was obviously caused by the installer, ESP refused to take responsibility. Finally, from start to finish, the installation took over 4 months. So, if you’re in a hurry, forget it. I’ve had my system for less than a month and, at the moment, it’s not working and it’s going on a week since I contacted them for help. Needless to say, I DO NOT RECOMMEND ENERGY SERVICE PARTNERS.

(ESP response: Hi Bruce, we're sorry you feel this way. We don't have a project under your name in our system, which might be part of the problem of resolving your concerns promptly if we need more info to track the system down. Please reach out with the primary contact's information so we can look into your concerns. We stand behind every one of our installations, the components we use, and the professionalism of our customer service team. In the rare event that there is an issue with your system we are always happy to assist and make it right as covered in our 25 year workmanship warranty

Response to ESP owner:

Yes, Energy Service Partners DID install our solar system. It’s under my wife’s name and I won’t put her name on a public forum. Interesting that you replied within an hour of my complaint, since your employee Mr. S. Sullivan wouldn’t bother to address OUR issues after more than two weeks of waiting. Some of those issues, but not all, are in my first posting. And, all of which are 100% true. If you’re not lying to me about standing behind your installation and components then give me your name and we’ll have a reasonable conversation. Otherwise, continue to make false claims about the integrity of your company. Your employees certainly aren’t rising to the standards you’ve set forth here.